Alcatel Corp. has joined other big infrastructure players by launching its push-to-talk application, an instant communication protocol that has gained momentum during the past year.
Alcatel said it will integrate its product with its Internet Protocol multimedia communication portfolio.
The announcement comes as industry is split over definitive standards for PTT over Cellular, with Nokia Corp. pitted against other players such as Siemens AG and L.M. Ericsson.
The French vendor said its application will harness the strengths of instant messaging and short message services.
“Through the simple touch of a button, users can engage an instant voice conversation with available users on their contact list, in a similar way they do with the existing instant messaging,” said the company. “They can talk to one or to groups of people simultaneously or directly deposit a message into recipients’ mailboxes, without having to call or to speak to them.”
Alcatel said its PTT solution will work with its billing product known as Alcatel Charging Proxy, which will allow end users to manage numerous contacts and contact groups through a Web-based interface and facilitate billing. Its PTT server will run on Intel Xeon processor-based servers, which use the Linux operating system.
